I see the arguments here often that it's a short pie fight, too many guys and only one girl, and so on. I rewatched it last night (its on the Max streaming service under TCM or classics - the Warner library) and it still does it for me. Sure it could have been better, with more women. But here's why I think its great:

Real pies and lots of them
Natalie Wood at the height of her babe-ness
A major star of the time
Big-budget set
Reasonable story line for pie fight
Good film quality
Multiple hits on Natalie. Too often, in other films or TV, the women are hit once or twice and then its off to someone else.
The character appears to be "into" the fight. She doesn't just get hit, she throws pies and appears to enjoy seeing her pies hit others.
That costume. Lingerie! Corset! Stockings! Boobs! And she takes off that stupid jacket early so we get a good look.

I need to see what sort of screen grabs I can get from Max but I just did these new ones. Wish Max had some BTS features and outtakes for GR as it does for some other films.

This, along with the scene in Tommy, are two of the greatest WAM scenes ever shown in major movies.

Another reason to love the scene: They appear to be just flinging the pies with wild abandon after the first few hits. Sure we know it took 4-5 days and some scripting but the onscreen result is a complete loss of control by the participants.

When l saw this amazing pie fight scene on tv. I was so grateful that l was home alone. Natalie wood looked so stunning getting all messy. Wearing that corset. I mean l couldn't believe my eyes. And that last pie that got her face covered still gets me . But The Great Race pie fight is something you'll never forget.

When she gets up on the table, we also see those great legs in stockings (even though the long shots are in the background).

It also still works for me.
You listed many reasons for that already. One aspect that's especially interesting to me is that part of the movie was filed in my hometown Vienna in Austria (added a few stills from that documentary). Also it took them 5 days to film the pie fight ... one can only imagine how often Natalie Wood got pied, cleaned up, styled and then pied again until the scene was finished.
Also Blake Edwards took it to himself to deliver the pies (at least important ones) ... as a director it's extremely difficult to convey how you want a pie to be thrown ... it's a mix of timing, velocity, aim, direction etc. and it's influenced by the desired outcome, the coverage, the "splatiness" and of yourse by the consistency of the pie. A lot of things can go wrong ... and if you don't have the time and budget to completely reset a scene (cleanup, styling etc.) you may end up with an inferior result. So better to do it yourself from the getgo.
And I wondered - with the help of AI - how it could have looked like when Natalie Wood would have dropped by in the WAM Photography studio during her stay in Vienna ...




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ViDTRYsS9s

One little complaint I have about that scene: They should've had more women in it! They could've perhaps had some maids get involved!

I keep hoping someone will find and make available the outtakes from this movie, particularly the piefight. Five days for four minutes of film? There should be quite alot.

I grew up wishing I was female no.2

maybe we should arrange this as a splosh meet lol

I'm up for it! x

Totally agree!

it always was a good messy film.

It's even better to think that it took 4 days to shoot and Nathalie Wood would have got messy, then cleaned up, then messy and clean again several times over 4 days.

It makes me wonder how many pies were thrown at her over 4 days and imagine her covered in mess for much of the time.

Lovely.

Screen time devoted to lesser actresses or extras would have taken away from footage of the lingerie-clad Natalie Wood. It would have been a mistake to include more women.

Another one that can attest that the scene still does it for me.

Natalie Wood emerging from the water earlier got my heart racing.

Then the pie fight that proved how erotic pie fights could be.

Each of us reacts in our own way to scenes. I wish the stupid jacket would have stayed on long enough to get trashed. I always like seeing fancy clothing destroyed in pie fights. One way of accomplishing this would be to have her start to remove it and then get it destroyed by pies as she is taking it off. Then reveal the still clean corset as the jacket exits the scene.

As much as I enjoyed other food fights in various media before this, I think one of the reasons it was erotic was seeing Natalie getting hit numerous times. Another reason unknown to me at the time I watched it in the theater is how much it is said that Natalie disliked having to participate in it. Just shows how good an actress she was by making us all think she enjoyed giving and receiving pies.

I too still wish that there would be a discovery of footage not used.

Another wish is that some producer / director / studio would revive physical comedy. Not a remake of "Great Race" as no one could top it. But rather films that pay homage to the genre and include food fights, falling in the mud and other devices used in classic comedies involving Laurel and Hardy, Three Stooges and so many pioneers with the level of directing that Blake Edwards produced. The love of detail so much that he not only spent five days on a pie fight but also paid enormous sums for the set to look right throughout the film. The organ that Professor Fate played cost a fortune for the time as an example.

A great film to love.